Building an exceptional brand can be one of the most overwhelming and elusive challenges organizations face, according to author and consultant Denise Lee Yohn—who will keynote at CEO/Executive Team Network in October in Las Vegas.

Author and consultant Denise Lee Yohn has done some excellent work in this area, including an article for the Harvard Business Review entitled, 7 Steps to Deliver Better Customer Experiences. In it, she takes a holistic view of customer experience that requires alignment across the entirety of any organization looking to execute successfully.

With digital marketing tools and a commitment to brand evangelism, solution providers can change how effective they are at finding and keeping customers. That’s the message from marketing expert and author Denise Lee Yohn, who delivered one of the keynotes here on Monday keynote address at The Channel Company’s XChange 2017 conference in Orlando, Fla.

Brand experts say there’s a real risk that another gut punch could be crippling. “Every time something happens, it’s a nick,” said Denise Lee Yohn, a consumer brands expert. “And then a nick becomes a cut and a cut becomes a wound.”

Denise Lee Yohn, brand building consultant and author of What Great Brands Do, suggested that perhaps General Mills thought that launching an entirely new brand would help the product get more shelf space and attention from grocers.

Denise Lee Yohn, a brand consultant and author of What Great Brands Do (and former QSR columnist) says that, especially for chefs who are developing fast-casual concepts, it’s important they translate their fine-dining pedigree to a message easily discernible to the lay eater.

Denise Lee Yohn, the author of What Great Brands Do, told Entrepreneur that while consistency is admirable in a brand, in this case, the company would have done well to tell aggrieved customers that it was planning to review its rules around the dress code.

Denise Lee Yohn, consultant and author of the book What Great Brands Dosays, “You want your brand to stand out in ways other than price, because price is not a sustainable differentiator. There will always be someone who can undercut you.”

“Building a master brand is definitely a two-way or multi-way street – all brands within a portfolio have mutual interests and each should work to leverage its own equity in service of the others while tapping into the equity of others.” – Denise Lee Yohn

The results are in! Each month, companies come to us asking for Women Speaker ideas on a variety of topics to help inspire, educate, and inform their audiences. We do the research and deliver specific Speaker suggestions that our clients can choose from. Based on their response, here are 12 of our highest rated Women Speakers.

As cited in Lee Yohn (2012), their feedback mechanisms are almost done by stealth with Lululemon’s CEO, Christine Day spending hours each day observing how customers shop, listening to their complaints and then using this feedback to improve products and their experience.

Denise Lee Yohn knows how to develop successful brands. In her bestseller “What Great Brands Do”, she gives seven key features of good brands. Denise is convinced that a brand is not only the responsibility of the marketing department. Still, she sees the role of the marketer getting stronger.

Denise Lee Yohn, author of “What Great Brands Do,” believes that while Trump’s more controversial comments have alienated some would-be clients, his run for president has given him a platform to reach an even broader base. “It might end up being a wash,” she told FoxNews.com.

When buyers know more than ever, what should great salespeople do? Learn from the greatest brands. Join Denise Lee Yohn, branding savant, speaker, and author of What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest and most recently Extraordinary Experiences: What Great Retail and Restaurant Brands Do. She’ll lay out the specific steps for salespeople to stay ahead in the ever-changing world of sales.

During Denise Lee Yohn’s collaboration with brands, big and small, she’s being asked over and over about the changing world of sales. Based on this, she’s created a brand new (no pun intended 🙂) program that talks sales.

This edition of the Blinkist podcast features Denise Lee Yohn, author of the book What Great Brands Do. In the interview, Lee Yohn and I talk about why all branding starts inside, and how exactly Sony implemented that idea when Lee Yohn was there. Then we get into what ever happened to brands like Saturn and RadioShack – remember them?

The importance of the changes mentioned by Denise Lee Yohn was the starting point for the debate captained by Roberto Meir, international specialist in consumer relations, retail and relationship strategies with stakeholders. (Portuguese)

In traditional education systems, there is a lot of emphasis on following, obeying, and conforming to the crowd. It’s no surprise that two powerful personalities — Virtual Mentor Michael Hyatt and What Great Brands Do author Denise Lee Yohn — are both hankering for more emphasis on leadership in schools.

“For a while now, millennials’ shopping patterns have been distinguished by a greater use of digital for doing brand and product research before, during and after visiting a store,” said Denise Lee Yohn, a retail consultant and author of “What Great Brands Do.”

Author of the bestseller “What Great Brands Do: The Seven Principles of Brand Building that separated the Best of the Rest”, the international specialist in building brands Denise Lee Yohn will be in Brazil in September.

Denise Lee Yohn, author and brand-building consultant, discusses sponsoring the 2016 Olympic games, if advertisers are getting their money’s worth from the sponsorships and which companies hit the mark. She speaks to Bloomberg’s Rishaad Salamat on “Trending Business.”

Make your own website a vital source for information about the products you carry, and in store, deliver personalized, real-time, caring service which is more valuable to many customers than saving a few dollars by purchasing online.

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If you feel like your brand could use some polishing, then pick from one of these five books and start reading. Each of these books delivers actionable strategies that will help you build a better brand and improve your marketing strategy.

Is a brand best defined as a totality of experiences? Even if so, is it time to move beyond that understanding to a new one? This month we’ve asked several branding experts from around the world to weigh in on the topic including Denise Lee Yohn, consultant, speaker, and author of several books on branding, including What Great Brands Do.

True University day two kicked off with a general session from Diane Adams, Chief People Officer at Qlik, on creating the company culture you want from day one of your company. More dynamic sessions followed. Denise Lee Yohn, author of “What Great Brands Do,” taught us how to build a rockstar brand.

While focus groups can still be useful, big retailers like Procter and Gamble and Kraft are increasingly looking to neuroscience to uncover what is going on in the minds of consumers when they shop, says Denise Lee Yohn, author of the book What Great Brands Do.

“What we know is that Millennial consumers care a lot more about the values of the companies they do business with,” says Denise Lee Yohn, marketing consultant and author of the book What Great Brands Do (and former QSR columnist).

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Denise Lee Yohn is the master of brand building. Companies ranging from Sony, Frito Lay, and Burger King have sought after her for her expertise. If these world renowned companies put their faith in Denise, so should you! Need help building your brand? Check out her blog!

“Customer experience is becoming more influential in shaping people’s expectations,” said Denise Lee Yohn, a branding consultant, noting that such stores function as intensive, immersive storytellers that can convey a brand’s history, attributes and future vision.

My guest this week is Denise Lee Yohn, a best-selling author and frequent guest on CNN and Bloomberg. Denise has worked with the creme de la creme in building brand identity. We will be discussing how you can build intense customer loyalty and she will share her seven secrets to building a powerful brand.

In her 2013 AdWeek article The Death of the Tagline: Flexible branding is the new name of the game, Denise Lee Yohn concluded that in order to survive, taglines must evolve into concise mission statements.

Jason Goldberg, SVP, Commerce & Content at Razorfish, and “RetailGeek,” includes Extraordinary Experiences on his recommended reading list. The “very interesting” book shows how “stores use every touchpoint to build customer loyalty and life time value.”

On today’s episode, Kevin Lockett talks to branding queen Denise Lee Yohn on her book ‘What Great Brands Do,” the success of Shake Shack, a look at how established marketers like Sean Combs shift their branding concepts, Amazon vs. Netflix, should smaller companies follow the the same branding concepts as big companies and her early love for dance.

“They should take a page from Starbucks when Howard Schultz returned to the helm back in 2008 and point to the meeting as an example of how they’re getting themselves back on track – refocusing everyone on the basics of their business,” said Denise Lee Yohn, a consultant who works with restaurants and retailers on brand strategy and was with Jack in the Box during that chain’s 1993 E. coli outbreak.

Over a 25-year career including running Sony’s first ever brand office as the vice president/general manager of brand and strategy, Denise Lee Yohn has established herself as an authoritative voice in the world of branding.

Stick with it. With more than half of new restaurants failing within the first year, only entrepreneurs who can take the heat stay in the kitchen. “Great brands will break through,” said Denise Lee Yohn, author of Extraordinary Experiences: What Great Retail and Restaurant Brands Do.

In her 2014 book, Denise leveraged her 25 years of experience working with some of the top brands to create the 7 Branding Principles of the Best Brands. Great brands: start inside, avoid selling products, ignore trends, don’t chase customers, sweat the small stuff, commit and stay committed, and never have to “give back”. Join us to learn how you can use this year to transform your branding from good to great.

I had a long talk to speaker and “Great Brands” author Denise Lee Yohn recently. There were many interesting points in our conversation, but one observation in particular stood out: marketers are failing to successfully articulate the role of brand to others in the organization.

It’s that time of year again. A time to take what we’ve learned and figure out how to plan for big marketing wins in 2016. Since each year is different with a new set of challenges, we tapped into the world’s top industry leaders including Denise Lee Yohn to tell you their own predictions for next year in helping you to think through your own marketing initiatives.

Forbes contributor Denise Lee Yohn published an article today that really caught my attention. If you don’t know her already, she’s a an author, speaker, and brand-building maven – analyzing top retail brands over the past 25 years. In this article, Denise digs into Stitch Fix and how they are using data to optimize and personalize offerings to their customers in a way that others traditionally haven’t tried.

Denise Lee Yohn is one of those people whose been part of my brand conversations for some time. I first encountered her no-nonsense approach to brand when she published an excerpt from her book What Great Brands Do on Branding Strategy Insider. It was one of the most popular posts of the year.Intrigued to probe more of her thinking about how brands generate greatness, I reached out to explore some aspects of this new book and her wider thinking in more detail. Here’s what happened:

Published November 2, Denise Lee Yohn’s latest work has already begun accumulating a growing following of supporters.Extraordinary Experiences is an ebook that delves into explaining and understanding how certain brick-and-mortar companies continually maintain growth throughout an age where the internet has been making such establishments virtually obsolete.

What are the most noteworthy ideas to keep in mind as we turn towards the new year? To answer this I turned to someone with an amazing ear to the ground and eye on the big tendencies shaping brand experiences. Denise Lee Yohn has tremendous conviction and carries with this the authority of someone who led marketing with world-class brands including Sony and Frito-Lay.

This week Denise Lee Yohn guest posts on Annette Franz Gleinicki’s CX-Journey.com website about whether great customer experience is enough. She is talking about the need to not only have good design and solid execution when it comes to customer experience, but also the need for your experiences to be differentiated.

In recent years, McDonald’s has made a push to regionalize its menu by, for example, serving lobster rolls at some locations in the Northeast. It used to be a prime example of a big chain that was completely the same no matter where it was located, said Denise Lee Yohn, a brand consultant and author of “What Great Brands Do.”

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In her first book, WHAT GREAT BRANDS DO, Denise provided a seven-step roadmap for how brands can achieve greatness and shared how big benchmark brands achieved their greatness. Smartly, she has written a follow-up companion ebook, EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCESthat focuses on how smaller brands are following this brand royalty roadmap.

“In this day and age, Chipotle or any company needs to recognize that people are going to find out. It’s better for them to engage in the conversation and be as up front as they can,” said Denise Lee Yohn, a consultant who works with restaurants and retailers on brand strategy.

Denise Lee Yohn knows a thing or two about great brands. Specifically, What Great Brands Do — the title of her best-selling book. The follow-up Extraordinary Experiences examines the principles of her first book at work in the restaurant and retail industry. I couldn’t wait to discuss great brands, extraordinary experiences, and more this week with Denise Lee Yohn.

There are many things in Denise Lee Yohn’s new book, Extraordinary Experiences I wish I’d said. A follow up to her smart 2014 release, What Great Brands Do, Extraordinary Experiences makes the what-shouldn’t-be-so-extraordinary point that brands are, at their core, experiences.

Most great customer experiences don’t happen by chance. They’re the result of much bigger principles and practices that happen behind the scenes every day. “These experiences don’t just happen; nor do they result only from excellent operations,” says Denise Lee Yohn, author of Extraordinary Experiences.

In her most recent bestselling book, What Great Brands Do(Jossey-Bass, 2014), Yohn identifies certain things that ‘great brands’ have in common. Surprisingly, these ‘things’ have less to do with advertising and communications and more to do with how they run the business and cultivate their brand. I sat down with her a while back to learn more.

“Chick-fil-A already has this positive, wholesome, healthy halo where people aren’t necessarily questioning the healthfulness of their food or the quality or the safety,” Brand-building expert and QSR columnist Denise Lee Yohn says.

(In her bestseller “What Great Brand Do” Lee Yohn analyzes some of the leading companies in the world and their strategies, landing a different perspective on creating truly successful marketing methods to market positioning, helping CEOs of renowned international organizations as well as companies of all sizes.

Denise Lee Yohn, a retail consultant and the author of What Great Brands Do, says that though the prices were considerably lower, the limited nature of Lilly’s line at Target could end up bolstering the company’s exclusive reputation.

“You’re seeing more brands coming to the realization that it’s not just about putting out messages and posting content, but also reacting to and curating other peoples’ content and spotlighting what other people are doing,” said Denise Lee Yohn, author of “What Great Brands Do.”

Self-Discipline Strategist Rory Vaden interviews Denise Lee Yohn about her bestselling book, What Great Brands Do, as well as salespeople’s personal brands, the brand turnaround story at Jack In the Box, and more.

Heinz may help Kraft here, says Denise Lee Yohn, because of the varieties of sauces and condiments — like Sriracha and salsa ketchup — that the company has introduced in recent years as a way to appeal to younger customers interested in ethnic foods.

Branding your business is critical for success!! However, we don’t always know the tricks and strategies to accomplish a winning Branding Plan. Join me with expert, Denise Lee Yohn, author of the book “What Great Brands Do- The 7 Brand Building Principles That Separate the Best from the Rest”.

Listen in to learn from Denise’s years of research and hands-on experience to ensure your brand is known not only for your product, but your customer experience that will keep you in business for years to come.

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“I think what a lot of clothing retailers have found is that they need to have all these other lifestyle products,” said Denise Lee Yohn, a branding consultant and the author of “What Great Brands Do.”

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Denise Yohn’s book, What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest gave great examples of the common practices top brands employ to deliver consistently on their brand value which translates to more loyal customers, higher revenues, with above-average profit margins.

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What Great Brands Do “makes a real effort to present strategies in a way that can be applied in more typical business and branding scenarios.”

How does clarifying company purpose help to establish a clear, resonant brand? In the first of three episodes focusing on branding in the 21st century, Denise Lee Yohn, author of What Great Brands Do, stops by to discuss branding from the inside out

Few know more about how brands become great than Denise Lee Yohn, bestselling author of “What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand Building Principles That Separate the Best From The Rest.” She speaks to iMedia about her book and why brand introspection is a key pillar in what makes certain companies truly exceptional.

In her chapter of What Great Brands Do called “Great Brands Avoid Selling Products,” author Denise Lee Yohn takes a close look at Pampers, which had been losing market share to Huggies, in spite of the fact that Pampers was clearly superior at keeping tiny tushies dry.

“If McDonald’s can fix its executional problems and refocus on its core menu and appeal, then ‘I’m lovin’ it’ can once again work for the company,” said restaurant-marketing consultant Denise Lee Yohn.

U.S. based brand building expert Denise Lee Yohn says “Tim Hortons enjoys such a strong equity as a Canadian brand and its active community-based sponsorships contribute to the sense of it being a ‘local’ brand.”

Bloomberg Radio’s Pimm Fox interviews What Great Brand Do author Denise Lee Yohn on the At the Half show about Gap’s new advertising campaign, “Dress Normal” featuring celebrities including Angelica Huston and Ellsabeth Moss.

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What I enjoyed in this book is that it is so counter intuitive. It takes the obvious and flips it on its head, not to be provocative but to help make clear how brands can be frameworks and guideposts for companies. Yohn cites specific and clear examples of successes and failures throughout the book to illustrate her ideas.

Below are four of the seven principles from the book and how we can apply them in the financial services world For the remaining three, be sure to pick up a copy of What Great Brands Do (it’s a wonderful read full of ideas).

Great brands can be built—and Denise Lee Yohn knows exactly how to do it. Delivering a fresh perspective, Yohn’s What Great Brands Do teaches an innovative brand-as-business strategy that enhances brand identity while boosting profit margins, improving company culture, and creating stronger stakeholder relationships.

Terranea’s close association with the Code Conference does carry some risk. Denise Lee Yohn, a San Diego branding consultant familiar with the both resort and the event, said a potential pitfall would be an embarrassing moment at the conference that could make Terranea an instant punchline. But the potential rewards are bigger than the risks.

Keeping Patrick — who is kind of like a small business owner herself — under contract could be key for GoDaddy, says Denise Lee Yohn, a marketing consultant and author of the book What Great Brands Do.

In her book, What Great Brands Do, Denise Lee Yohn identifies certain things that great brands have in common. Surprisingly, these things have less to do with advertising and communications, and more to do with how they run the business and cultivate their brand. We recently sat down with her to learn more.

How does a brand go from good to great? It’s a question many seek answers for, and lucky for you, this recap edition of #brandchat has them. With much gratitude to special guest Denise Lee Yohn, author of What Great Brands Do!, we delve into what makes a great brand

Those companies reaping the benefits of CSR strategy are “looking for ways to create shared value and using their brand identities to focus, shape and integrate their efforts,” brand-building expert and author Denise Lee Yohn observes.

As pot becomes more mainstream, including legalization in some states, experts and consumers have started to wonder more vocally about whether ads are targeting pot smokers, said Denise Lee Yohn, a brand expert who has worked with companies like Frito-Lay and Burger King.

With twenty-five years of experience building some of the world’s greatest brands, she knows the strategies that work. Whether Burger King, Land Rover, Jack-In-the-Box, Spiegel, or Sony Electronics, Denise has knows the principles that make a great brand.

In chapter #2 (“Great Brands Avoid Selling Products”) of Denise Lee Yohn’s new book What Great Brands Do (Jossey-Bass, Jan 2014), Denise tells a short story of how Pampers was losing market share in Europe, despite having a diaper that was technologically superior to its chief rival Huggies.

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Listen to this amazing interview with brand-building expert Denise Lee Yohn and discover how you can use the 7 brand-building principles to develop a standout brand that fosters customer loyalty and increases profit margins.

What does it take to build a successful brand? Denise Lee Yohn, author of What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best from the Rest, shared her insights on creating an outstanding brand from the inside out with Associate Editor Maria Minsker.

Denise Lee Yohn, author of What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles That Separate the Best from the Rest, shared her insights on creating an outstanding brand from the inside out with Associate Editor Maria Minsker.

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Denise Lee Yohn joins Jim Blasingame to reveal what small businesses can learn about branding from the great brands, including how to start from the inside.

Curious about what it takes to become a truly great brand? Anxious to transform your brand into an industry leader? Read on for a taste, and then get your hands on a copy of What Great Brands Do for seven eye-opening principles that turn typical brand-building on its head.

Denise Lee Yohn, a consultant to top sporting and technology brands such as New Balance, Sony and Oakley, holds social interaction responsible for the rise, suggesting, “People now have fun and easy ways to connect with each other and share their data.”

Denise Lee Yohn, author of the book What Great Brands Do and a featured speaker at the event, said her research has indicated that the leaders of cult-like brands view their brands very differently from other leaders.

As brand-building expert Denise Lee Yohn writes in her new book, What Great Brands Do: The Seven Principles That Separate the Best from the Rest, a strong internal culture helps rally all stakeholders from suppliers and customers to vendors.

In What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand Building Principles That Separate the Best From the Rest, author/consultant Denise Lee Yohn comes close to delivering the broadest, most accurate definition of brand.

San Diego brand consultant Denise Lee Yohn has worked with Sony, Land Rover, Jack in the Box, Oakley and other well-known companies. In her new book, “What Great Brands Do,” she argues that it takes more than an eye-catching logo or clever slogan to be successful.

Denise Lee Yohn, a branding consultant and the author of What Great Brands Do, says Blue Point–and any other small company that’s been acquired by an industry giant–will need to convey to consumers that its DNA hasn’t changed.

Denise Lee Yohn, branding expert and author of “What Great Brands Do,” says a great Super Bowl advertisement must both entertain and connect with an audience in order for it to have broad and lasting influence.

Denise Lee Yohn is the author of the new book,What Great Brands Do, whichillustrates how the world’s greatest brands have elevated brand-building from a niche marketing function and use their brand as a strategic management tool that guides every aspect of their business.

Denise Lee Yohn, a brand-building expert who has served as a consultant to such companies as Sony, Dell, and Covad communications, says relevant and compelling brands can help counteract “the downward pull of a tough market by (allowing businesses) to sustain price premiums and higher margins because its offerings are perceived to be differentiated and of higher value.”

Denise Lee Yohn, who is a San Diego-based independent brand consultant, told me that because KFC has only used the Colonel as an icon or graphic in recent years and not as a spokesperson, there shouldn’t be a lot of impact on the brand.

Denise Lee Yohn, a brand consultant, says PETA may have gone too far with this campaign. “It’s more effective to make the decision-making process aspirational,” she says. “You want to engage people — not shock and repel them.”

“It’s easy to get caught up in the politics and sentimental nature of the fireworks location, but Macy’s should make the decision primarily with its brand strategy in mind,” said Denise Lee Yohn, a branding expert.

Denise Lee Yohn said she’s doubtful the “I ate the bones”tagline will tickle the public’s fancy in the way that the Clara Peller line did for Wendy’s so long ago:”People have become a lot more savvy and think, “It’s just another campaign.'”

“One reason for the growth is the economy we’re in, and people are looking for greater values in their purchases, from food to clothing to insurance,” said Denise Lee Yohn, a San Diego-based brand strategy consultant who will be speaking at the conference.

Terry O’Reilly guest hosts Q with Jian Ghomeshi — Brand consultant Denise Yohn speaks to the emergent genre of ads aimed at ‘stoners’ and what this trend says about the state of the fast food industry today.

Denise Lee Yohn, a San Diego-based brand consultant, said, “If Nordstrom remains focused on [service], and figures out how to adapt service to what younger affluent consumers want, its brand will only grow stronger.”

Denise Lee Yohn responds to an article about the secrets of viral advertising saying, “If an ad is liked and passed along but forgotten or no further action is taken by the viewer, [it does] little to build the brand or the business.”

J. C. Penney’s new leader has a vision for tomorrow’s shopping experience, but “I don’t think the opportunity to do something dramatically different is possible, given their real estate and the realities of retail,” says Denise Lee Yohn.

J. C. Penney is setting out to rethink the shopping experience, hiring Ron Johnson, who is in charge of Apple’s stores, as chief executive. But, “the way malls and department stores are now, I’m not sure there’s a compelling reason” to go, says Denise Lee Yohn.

A microbrewer who’s named her beer after the town she’s based in (Intercourse, PA), may be alienating her target audience. “Sexually charged marketing messages can sometimes limit a brand’s appeal to younger male audiences,” Denise Lee Yohn explains.

With consumer-generated ads, “You’re getting these very poor quality spots, and it’s not even done in seriousness anymore. It’s almost like a joke,” says San Diego-based brand strategist Denise Lee Yohn. “It’s almost like a parody, and it’s being treated like a game. That’s definitely affecting the quality of what we’re seeing.”

Denise Lee Yohn will provide insider insights and advice from case studies at the conference for Southern California’s elite business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, May 6, 2010.

Denise Lee Yohn will provide insider insights and advice from case studies at the conference for Southern California’s elite business leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, May 6, 2010.

Denise Lee Yohn participated in a roundtable discussion with Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot, Bill Schley of David ID, and Harry Hoover of My Creative Team, to talk about topics such as the social media bubble and listening to your customers.

MENG: The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) found Denise Lee Yohn’s blog, “brand-as-business bites™ ™”, is one of the top 20 marketing blogs (written by non-MENG members for objectivity) actually being read by marketing executives.

Denise Lee Yohn evaluates the new program saying, “…the advertising service is spot on for marketers that want to target consumers more effectively;” but she also warns the mailings could be viewed as spam if brands without a logical tie-in to frozen food place ads.

Convenience stores seeking to promote their fresh food offerings would be wise to use social media tools like Twitter to “run special offers without the hassle of coupons and announce the arrival of a new product,” Denise Lee Yohn suggests.

“Most dance retailers are mom-and-pop shops or small businesses and don’t necessarily have a clear brand identity,” Denise Lee Yohn observes. “If you consistently deliver a compelling and appealing customer experience, people will buy more and visit more.”

The move by Everyday with Rachael Ray to feature a cover without the magazine’s eponymous personality is similar to the approach Martha Stewart took, Denise Lee Yohn observes. “…Less emphasis on her as a person and more on her brand seems a smart move.”

Commenting on Brink’s rebranding effort, Denise Lee Yohn offers a perspective on making the shift during the recession: “Trying to transfer that trust from Brink’s to a different name is particularly challenging. People are looking for proven suppliers with reputable names.”

Results from a survey by the Mr. Clean brand team says nearly three out of five married adults said doing household chores and cleaning together can maintain a healthy relationship. The team says these findings will help them better position the brand against competitors. “It seems a stretch,” Denise Lee Yohn counters.

Results from a survey by the Mr. Clean brand team says nearly three out of five married adults said doing household chores and cleaning together can maintain a healthy relationship. The team says these findings will help them better position the brand against competitors. “It seems a stretch,” Denise Lee Yohn counters.

Atkins is trying to shed some of the baggage it’s accumulated in recent years and relaunch the brand with a new, ‘less clinical’ and ‘more contemporary’ message,” Denise Lee Yohn describes. Their real challenge, therefore, is to get people to reconsider the brand.

The biggest players in weight-loss programs – Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast and NutriSystem – are rolling out new ads. But Denise Lee Yohn predicts, “We’ll see people opting out of expensive programs and looking for more do-it-yourself options.”

The biggest players in weight-loss programs – Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast and NutriSystem – are rolling out new ads. But Denise Lee Yohn predicts, “We’ll see people opting out of expensive programs and looking for more do-it-yourself options.”

Asked for key trends that will define consumer and restaurant operator behavior in 2009, Denise Lee Yohn reports on increased value-priced menu options and point to the fact that BYOB and all-you-can-eat options “have popped up at some unlikely places in order to cater to families and groups looking for more options.” Snack-sized options is another trend.

In support of the chain’s move to reinvigorate its brand, Denise Lee Yohn offers “Orange Julius has a great heritage.” The brand’s attributes are similar to those of A&W restaurants, which play on nostalgia and old-fashioned goodness.

“We’re seeing snacks that deliver specific health benefits…the trend reflects changing snack ‘need-states’ which is a state of demand that resides at the intersection of a consumer’s attitude and the eating occasion; for example, to acquire energy for a pending workout, to escape boredom, etc.,” Denise Lee Yohn explains.

“We’re seeing snacks that deliver specific health benefits…the trend reflects changing snack ‘need-states’ which is a state of demand that resides at the intersection of a consumer’s attitude and the eating occasion; for example, to acquire energy for a pending workout, to escape boredom, etc.,” Denise Lee Yohn explains.

“A technology-based system like [CurvesSmart] makes the brand seem more contemporary and credible,” Denise Lee Yohn concedes. However, the ad doesn’t seem consistent with the brand’s history. “This ad doesn’t reinforce any of those dimensions.” The ad’s “serious” and “generic” tone may “alienate the Curves core target.”

“A technology-based system like [CurvesSmart] makes the brand seem more contemporary and credible,” Denise Lee Yohn concedes. However, the ad doesn’t seem consistent with the brand’s history. “This ad doesn’t reinforce any of those dimensions.” The ad’s “serious” and “generic” tone may “alienate the Curves core target.”

Denise will speak at the Retailing Summit, sponsored by the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University. Yohn will provide brand-building insights and instruction to retailers from across the nation and abroad in Dallas, TX, on Thursday, October 7, 2010.

Branding consultant Denise Lee-Yohn notes that, for KFC, trumpeting grilled chicken and then promoting products like the Double Down may have muddied the brand. “They don’t have a clear identity anymore, and I think that’s hurt them,” she says.

“Carl’s Jr. has carved out a distinctive brand position with offerings and advertising squarely targeted to young males,” Denise Lee Yohn says. “To now switch gears and try to also target women just doesn’t make sense.”

While linking Cream of Wheat to the Olympics may give them a sales boost, “I think they would have been better served by pursuing a wholesome, natural positioning instead,” Denise Lee Yohn observes. She adds, “Packaged foods categories are so crowded already. Unless a new/newly revived brand has a clear point of difference, I doubt their retail customers or end consumers are going to notice or care.”

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